Learning intentions and objectives.In this session you will learn about:

Leadership for Learning as a framework that creates the opportunity for change in schools to promote the activity of learning,

Most Significant Change (MSC) as a technique for monitoring and evaluating this professional development programme by collecting stories of significant changes in areas of practice, and

sharing resources effectively across groups and within groups when doing activities that make use of ICT taking into account the number of students per computer and the need for all students to spend time on the computer.

Success criteria.To meet the learning intentions you will:

recognise the potential for leadership capacity to expand as a result of the professional development of staff on programmes like this,

contribute MSC stories on a regular basis either by writing them down or making an audio recording,

plan ICT activities that allow all students to see the computer well (no more than 6 per computer) being prepared to provide alternative activities for the rest of the class to work on at the same time, and

plan activities that allow all students equal access to a computer by e.g. giving them roles within groups and encouraging them to monitor use.

ICT components.The ICT components you will focus on are

Searching for images and downloading images

OpenOffice Impress for making your own photo stories

Continuation of typing practice

Classroom based activities (with your students, after this session):

you will do group work around images (using OO Impress),

you will do typing practice in the classroom

Resources needed.

You'll need to make a "pin board", so you might need some pins or bluetack, and some space.

1 Review of follow-up activities from last session

If you are running a professional learning programme which follows these sessions in sequence, then you should do the review of follow-up activities relating to the previous session (ICTs in interactive teaching). The 'review of follow-up activities' for that session is available here, and also shown below in the session text. However, if you are following selected sessions in a different order, then you should use the reflection appropriate to the previous session you did.

The review of the follow-up activities for this session (to be done at the start of the next session) is available here.

2 Review of follow-up activities

Whole group reflection (5 min) on digital image slideshow activity.

Part A: Homework in class. Spend a few minutes reading through your reflections (on the digital image slideshow activity that you did with your class) before discussing these questions as a whole group: How did the digital image slideshow activity go? Was it more or less successful than last time? Why do you think that? How did you choose to arrange the students for the activity? Did you manage your resources well?

Small group discussion (10 min) on planned digital activity.

Part B: Homework outside teaching. You have planned a simple activity using digital resources in some way to support learning in a lesson you will be teaching some time in the near future. Share your completed activity template with a partner from the same year group if possible. Last time you were asked to come to the lab to find resources. What resources did you manage to find for your ICT-based activity? How did you find them? Was it easy? What do you think can be done with them? Show each other any resources you have uploaded and make a note in your reflective journal of any useful feedback you receive from your partner.

Part C: ICT task. Spend a few minutes discussing as a whole group, any issues you had with the ICT task.

Educator note

Discuss the use of ICT with groups of participants as they are sharing their activity plans with each other. Does it support interactive teaching? How?

Make sure that participants

have all recorded their audio reflections (make sure they can all use the upload script),

have all come into the lab to practise their ICT skills, and

are able to save whatever resources they have found into the “lesson_resources” folder, and then to transfer the contents onto the server.

Also, make sure that the participants know the email address of the mailing list you are using! For the OER4Schools programme, we are using a mailing list at google groups:
oer4schools (at) googlegroups.com.

3 Why are we doing this? An introduction to Leadership for Learning

Individual activity (5 min): Reading about the five principles of Leadership for Learning. Read the following text.

Background reading

Leadership for Learning (LfL) is a framework of ideas and principles originating in the international Carpe Vitam Leadership for Learning project co-ordinated at the University of Cambridge. The framework has been used for 10 years in different contexts, particularly as a programme for school leadership professional development.

Leadership for Learning is a way of thinking, doing, communicating, working, and reflecting about educational leadership in schools for the singular purpose of promoting the activity of learning.

Five principles of Leadership for Learning are as follows:

Focus on learning

Conditions for learning

Learning Dialogue

Shared Leadership

Shared Accountability

Throughout this programme we will explore the five LfL principles in practice with a view to you contributing your own ideas about Leadership for Learning through interactive learning opportunities.

LfL is not something that can be implemented, ‘done-to’ a school or imposed on a person. LfL provides a framework that creates an opportunity for change; for expanding leadership capacity in schools and improving the quality of learning. The OER4schools programme adopts an approach similar to the one in LfL in how it defines professional learning. You will have an opportunity in this unit to reflect further on the application of LfL in every aspect of your own professional learning.

Same-task group work (10 min): Small group discussion on LfL in school. Form a different small group of three to four teachers and discuss these questions:

What is your initial impression of the terms ‘leadership’ and ‘learning’?

Who are the leaders and learners in your school?

Who are the leaders in your school who are responsible for learning within the school?

Can you be a leader who promotes learning in your school? Why?

Educator note

Make sure that the participants think about this broadly. For instance, “Who are the leaders and learners in your school?” should include the head teacher, both as a leader and a learner. There may also be others (such as cleaners) who may not seem to play an important teaching or administrative role in the school but there is certainly plenty we could learn from them. (e.g. their stories of the school, their observations, and of course, how they have kept the school clean and tidy in an efficient manner to create a conducive environment of learning for all)

This is only an introduction to Leadership for Learning, but we will use those principles throughout the programme, and return to it in more depth shortly.

At the end of this unit we consider how to communicate with other
teachers at the school, with parents, head teachers, as well as
officials who might seek to assess your new teaching practices. It
also includes some material to support school leaders in providing a
conducive learning environment for their staff.

In terms of ICTs, this unit introduces GeoGebra and collaborative writing. You should continue practising your other ICT skills, including typing, and making use of images.

Unit 3: Group work.
This unit introduces group work, how to agree on ground rules, and what sort of resources support group
work (such as “talking points” and digital resources). In detail, the unit covers

exploratory talk,

same task group work,

different tasks group work,

group composition and formation,

ground rules for group work,

carousel of activities for group work,

mixed pace group work and differentiation, and

talking points activity for promoting group interaction.

Unit 4: Assessment for learning and lesson pacing.
The unit
introduces how to find out what your pupils have learnt, and where
they need more help, allowing you to use lesson time effectively
whilst making sure that your pupils are making continued progress.

In detail the unit covers

using an assessment inventory as a self-assessment measure,

sharing learning objectives and success criteria,

summative feedback,

formative feedback, and

peer assessment.

Unit 5: Enquiry-based learning and project work.
The unit introduces how to work in an “enquiry-based” way, for instance
learning through project work and in-depth, open-ended investigations.
We explore a way of teaching and learning that encourages students to take the initiative to
pose questions and explore their curiosity about the world around
them, through a process of enquiry.

Unit 6: Into the future.
This unit reviews the programme, and continues to make connections between the various interactive practices introduced throughout the programme. It also offers an introduction to action research and communities of practice, through which teachers can continually evolve their teaching practice.

Go through the above text (not spending too much time), making sure that everybody understands.

5 What is the most significant change?

Educator note

In this section, we introduce participants to the “Most Significant Change technique”. We would like participants to formulate their own goals, and to identify what change(s) they might like to make.

A useful addition to a SC story is a headline or title similar to what might be used in a newspaper article. This can be a convenient handle for participants to use to refer to the story when comparing it to others. It can also help the writer distil and communicate the essence of what happened.

Background reading

The most significant change (MSC) technique

MSC is a form of participatory monitoring and evaluation. It is participatory because many project stakeholders are involved both in deciding the sorts of change to be recorded and in analysing the data. It is a form of monitoring because it occurs throughout the program cycle and provides information to help people manage the program. It contributes to evaluation because it provides data on impact and outcomes that can be used to help assess the performance of the program as a whole.

collection of significant change (SC) stories emanating from the field level

systematic selection of the most significant of these stories by panels of designated stakeholders or staff

collective reading of the stories aloud and regular and often in-depth discussions about the value of reported changes

When the technique is implemented successfully, whole teams of people begin to focus their attention on programme impact. You can find out more about the MSC technique here: http://www.mande.co.uk/docs/MSCGuide.pdf

We now consider what the biggest changes might be as a consequence of being involved in this programme - for yourselves, for your teaching, for your students, for the school, or in whatever other area.

Whole class brainstorm (5 min) on newspaper analogy for recording MSC. Think about how a newspaper works. A newspaper presents news stories about interesting events. Newspapers are structured into different sections (subject areas, such as foreign news, domestic news, financial news, sport, leisure). The most important stories go on the front page and the most important of these is usually at the top of the front page.

Information to be documented should include:

Information about who collected the story and when the events occurred

Description of the story itself – what happened

Significance (to the storyteller) of events described in the story.

Documenting who collected the story and when helps the reader put the story in context and enables any follow-up inquiries to be made about the story, if needed.
The SC story itself should be documented as it is told. The description of the change identified as the most significant should include factual information that makes it clear who was involved, what happened, where and when.

Whole class dialogue (10 min): Whole group discussion on MSC stories. Now imagine that later on you will be putting together a whole newspaper issue about how this whole programme affects your thinking and classroom practice: What kinds of stories will be the most important? Who and what will the stories be about? Who will be affected by those stories, who would listen, and who will be they of interest to? What different sections would the newspaper have? What kind of change would you like to make?

The storyteller is also asked to explain the significance of the story from their point of view. This is a key part of MSC. Some storytellers will naturally end their stories this way, but others will need to be prompted. Without this section, people reading and discussing the story may not understand why the story was significant to the storyteller. For example, a woman may tell a story about going to a community meeting and sitting at the back and asking a question. ‘So what?’ you may think. She then tells you that this story was significant because she had not previously had the confidence to go to a community meeting, and that the program helped her gain the confidence to express her views in front of the village elders for the first time.

Where possible, a story should be written as a simple narrative describing the sequence of events that took place.

Educator note

Do the participants agree on how things might be different as a result of the programme?
How will we know when these significant changes have happened? What kinds of evidence do our stories need to refer to? They can also be revised as time goes on. If participants mention ICT use and skills, ask them to focus on changes in pedagogy too.

Record what participants say in a permanent form - in writing or electronically so we can refer to them later on. Make sure it is recorded on video / audio.

6 Groupwork with computers: Sharing resources across groups

Individual activity (5 min): Reading. Read the following.

Background reading

Access to computers: “We need more computers."
Many schools don’t have access to computers at all, but where schools do have access, it is often felt that there are not enough computers. How many computers would a school need? While some might say that one computer per child, or perhaps one computer per two children would be ideal, for many schools (and classrooms) this is unrealistic. In general, when you have access to computers, you should therefore make sure that the computers are used in the best way possible in your context. We now consider how to make best use of whatever computers are available during group work.

Same-task group work (5 min): Pair work on sharing computers.. Spend 5 minutes as pairs, considering the following scenario: You have 60 children in your class, and 10 computers. How would you arrange the groups, how would you distribute the computers, how would you structure the lesson?

To help with this, consider the following questions:

In devising groupings consider how many children can see the screen and get hands-on experience.

If you only have a few computers, it is better to operate a carousel so everyone gets a chance?

Whole class dialogue (10 min): Presentation and discussion Go round all the pairs, who very briefly present their suggestions. Discuss the various outcomes. What different proposals are there?

Educator note

Often the computers would be distributed equally (in this case one computer per group of 6), and all groups would do that same task. This distribution may well be seen a equitable. However, in practice, more than 3-4 children per computer does not work well.

Another way is to do different tasks groupwork, where some groups do computer-based work, while others do non-computer-based work. After a period of time, you can swap around the tasks, so that the groups which were not using a computer can now use one.

Refer to the two pictures above: In the picture with many children behind one netbook, do you think the children are using the netbook effectively? In the picture with the tablet, are the children interacting?

Here are two more pictures you can consider, regarding how children are sitting around a computer: In one picture, the screen us upright, and all the pupils are squeezing in behind. In the other picture, the screen is flat, allowing the children to sit around the screen.

7 Groupwork with computers: Sharing resources within groups

Having considered how computers are distributed among groups, we now consider how the computer can be shared equally within groups.

Same-task group work (5 min): Pair work. In pairs, consider the following questions:

What would you do if there are some students who always control the computer, while other group members never get to use it?

Would you say that it is sensible to mix computer-literate pupils with novices?

You should discuss strategies for access to computers within the group, i.e. rotating access to the trackpad. You could also discuss the benefits of using tablets or putting the computer screen flat (where this is possible).

It's important to create an environment where all pupils can participate. It's very important to make this explicit as the goal for group work: Everybody should have a go on the computer, not just the students who can type fast.

Come up with strategies for how you can achieve this. For example, in a group of 4, the students need to change over: For example, after a set period of time, access to the computer is rotated. This could be facilitated by giving each student a bottle top when they use the computer (but only on first use). At the end of the task, part of the evaluation is how many bottle tops your group got.

Pair work (10 min) to download the files. Start by downloading the presentation files above (or the pictures individually), and have a look at them. With a grade buddy, use presentation software to arrange and present them in the right sequence. If you have difficulty arranging the slides, read the background note below.

Background reading

Arranging slides in OpenOffice Impress

When you open a presentation, you see the first slide displayed in a larger window in the middle of the screen. To the left, you see small pictures of all of the slides in the presentation, like a "film strip". To rearrange the slides, you can simply click on a slide with the mouse, and (while holding down the mouse button), drag it to a different position.

Same-task group work (30 min): Plan an activity with ICT in year groups. In year groups plan an activity together (i.e. all grade 4 teachers plan a lesson for grade 4 together; grade 5 teachers together for grade 5; etc). Whilst in your group:

discuss with your colleagues (from the same grade) which topics you have coming up next week, and whether some of these topics would work particularly well with groupwork and ICT

choose a topic that you will be teaching for which this type of activity is useful

find some appropriate images for your chosen topic and plan a presentation for your students to re-order (you can find pictures that are open resources (Creative Commons licensed) at http://www.flickr.com/search/advanced/)

make active use of the computers to identify useful images together and download them

Read the following background text if you need help with downloading Flickr images.

Background reading

Downloading images from Flickr

Click on the photo from the Flickr search results that you want to use (the screen will refresh and a larger version of the image will be shown).

Some computer use relies on conceptual understanding (such as understanding the terms "application", "window" etc). Student need practical experience, but the main concepts are understood conceptually.

There are other skills in computer use, which are motor skills (such as using the mouse and typing) that are need to be learned through repetition.

Activity:

Students do typing practise (individually).

If there are not enough keyboards for each student to have one, you do carousel-style group work. You can combine developing typing skills with any other activity that requires individual or small group work.

Make sure you plan your lesson so that every student has got a chance to practise

Use a typing tutor

Students can record their scores to see how they improve over time, or to form a league table.

Typing practice in the classroom. You only have a limited number
of computers. When you start typing, you can do this in
pairs, so that both students understand how the typing tutor program
works. However, once students get this, it makes sense to do it as an
individual activity. However, students only needs to practise for 10
minutes. Say if you have 12 netbooks, then take a group of 12 students
to do typing practise, while your remaining students (perhaps 20-30 or
so) do other tasks (also in group work). After a while, you rotate:
Some of the students who were doing other tasks now use the typing
tutor, while the students previously doing the typing tutor now join
in with other group tasks. We will introduce
carousel(a)-style group work properly
in session
3.2.

9 Connecting with overarching goals of the programme

Open space (10 min). It's now time for the "open space", that gives you an opportunity to discuss issues that have arisen, and to relate those to the broader context of the programme. Do not just gloss over this section, but make time to raise issues, and probe the progress that you are making. You could use this space to:

Discuss your assessment portfolios: Is there anything that you are unsure about? Is it going well? What could be done better?

Check on the work with the classroom assistants: Is this going well? Are there any tensions? Any observations or tips you can share?

Reviewing individual ICT practise (such as typing practise).

If you are preparing a presentation for other teachers, you could work on the presentation (about what you have been learning, stories emerging from MSC).

Remind those who are doing audio diaries, to upload them.

You could discuss any other issues that have arisen.

You will find notes and summaries of various techniques and concepts on our reference page, and you might want to refer to those for clarification during this activity if needed.

10 Follow-up activities

Agreeing follow-up activities (5 min).

Part A: Come to the teacher lab at least once each week to learn more ICT skills.

In preparation for developing some image-based lesson activities, you should search suitable images.

Do some typing practice to improve your typing skills.

Send an email to the oer4schools list (optional)

The following items are specific to the programme at CBS, and may need to be adapted to local circumstances:

Searching for images:

If there is internet, you can use the "search images on flickr" link from your school homepage (http://192.168.128.1).

Alternatively, if connectivity is poor, you can do this by browsing the schools edition of Wikipedia, also linked from the school homepage.

Part B: Try out your groupwork with ICT. As the week progresses, the teachers within each grade should share the experiences. That is to say, if you are the first teacher to teach this lesson, meet your colleagues afterwards, and discuss with them how it went, and what improvements could be made. Remember to keep a note of your reflections and of peer feedback in your reflective journal.

As you teach the lesson remember to think about your own role in the classroom; it is not just to monitor progress but also to interact with pupils, assess their understanding, offer support and help move their thinking forward. Sometimes a group will even need you to sit with them and offer intensive support to progress. Think about how you can identify this need?

During the lessons, remember to encourage groups to let everybody within the group have a go at using the ICT!

Video some of the groupwork if you can (ideally a colleague can do this for you so they can capture you as well as the pupils) and upload it to the server.

At the end of each session, we provide an overview of the activities in this session, together with their suggested timings. Although this appears at the end of the session (for technical reasons), you should keep an eye on this throughout the session, to make sure that you are pacing the workshop session appropriately!

Total time: 135 (min)

Activities in this session:

Whole group reflection (5 min) on digital image slideshow activity

Small group discussion (10 min) on planned digital activity

Individual activity (5 min): Reading about the five principles of Leadership for Learning

Same-task group work (10 min): Small group discussion on LfL in school

Whole class brainstorm (5 min) on newspaper analogy for recording MSC

Whole class dialogue (10 min): Whole group discussion on MSC stories

Individual activity (5 min): Reading

Same-task group work (5 min): Pair work on sharing computers.

Whole class dialogue (10 min): Presentation and discussion

Same-task group work (5 min): Pair work

Whole class dialogue (10 min): Discussion

Pair work (10 min) to download the files.

Same-task group work (30 min): Plan an activity with ICT in year groups

Open space(10 min).

Agreeing follow-up activities(5 min).

If you have printed this session for offline use, you may also need to download the following assets: